Uh, how, how much of a different fight could we expect, or are we expecting a different fight this week?

Honestly, who knows? It depends how he shapes up.

Um, if he wants to get stuck in, I'm more than happy to oblige.

By the sounds of it, they think I'm only dangerous early, and they think they're probably gonna, I don't know, box and move.

Not necessarily say run away, but st- maybe try and avoid me for the first half of the fight, then t- come on strong in the second half.

Who knows? But, um, but again, I've, I've got a record of, of proving that I'm there throughout the whole fight.

So, doesn't really matter what round you wanna kind of throw it down in.

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But when he started getting behind his jab and it started going wrong for you, you didn't adapt there, but you've shown in the past that you have the capability to adapt in fights.

Yeah, look, I think something you'll especially understand is the kind of pendulum swing that happens in a boxing match.

And the early rounds were mine.

I was feeling confident things were going away.

And it just it was getting away from me.

And I wasn't able to get my hands back on the ball, as it were, and kind of grab hold of the fight.

and again that comes from early successes leading into overconfidence and not getting some things right but I have made adjustments like that in the past but okay again that's another proven area something I can do I didn't do it on the night sometimes the occasion and whatever else can can play into it as a factor but I've proven I can make them adjustments I'll do it a second time around

Does that change your approach to this fight? Do you feel that the pressure off you puts you in a better space?

He's a very powerful guy.

Mm.

Yeah, no.

Look, he is big, strong guy.

Powerful.

There's also, you can pull up clips of him on the floor.

There's...

Do you, do you ever worry about that?

Yeah.

So even in my white-collar days, I hadn't lost and, and whatever.

So I was really kind of, I guess, uneasy as to how it might feel.

But, um, I think massively the performance, the fight, and the way it went in that aspect really kind of dampened those real heavy disappointment feelings, because I was so immensely proud of the performance I put on, the show I put on-

Yeah.

So, um, which is a, which is a funny circle of things.

And he's at the gym.

We- he's got the same coach as me and everything.

Like, what is your kind of impression on that and, and kind of the, the stick, for lack of a better term, that Ben gets?

Yeah, I do.

I honestly, I find it confusing.

I find it, I find it really, really bewildering, like proper confusing.

Because I don't know another, I don't know another boxing coach, um, definitely in U- in, in UK boxing, and maybe across the world really, who gets that much stick, um, for, for such, for performances at such a high level.

Like, he got absolutely berated for the AJ situation when that was the fight with Daniel.

Like, two of the, two, two of the best heavyweights in the world fighting for a world title.

Um, you know, I don't, I don't wanna kind of say, "Well, what advice would you give him?" But kind of where do you see the future for him, and what can he learn from that?

This is a special fight.

Yeah, the camp felt different.

More so, though, because we made adjustments.

We looked back on things that maybe areas we slipped on, maybe things weren't right.

We didn't get right the first time around, even down to little 1%.

But bigger adjustments, like I was staying away from my family for the week whilst I was training.

I would go home on the weekends and I'd go away for a week and stuff.

If you had to find a sentence that summed up why you lost, why did you lose then? Overconfidence.

any fight that's already been built up enough from that first fight, it's probably this one, right?

Yeah, literally.

The first fight has done the job in terms of selling the second fight itself.

But again, to go with that, it doesn't need all the theatrics anyway.

You put us two together in a ring and you're going to get what you want.

What was said in that face-off there? I was just asking him why we can't be pals, why he's so angry at me.

I thought, because I haven't seen him, aside from obviously the fight at the weekend, I hadn't seen him since.

But it happened with Ben after your fight, and now it's happening with Ben after Moses, but it's only you and Moses that are in the gym, in the corner on that night and in that fight camp, right?

Not

at the point of that interview, but it's because there's a reason for that, because you build up towards something.

If you...

if you speak to a marathon runner, for example, and if you ask them, oh, did you run a marathon in preparation to doing yours? No, they'll say no, because you build up to something.

So he may have done eight rounders, 10 rounders, and then finished on a couple of toes.

Don't get me wrong.

We're big, heavy, strong guys.

Given that you're stable, mate, have you spoken to him since his defeat?

What kind of Daniel Dubois are you expecting?

Look, objectively, I'm not sure.

It depends what Daniel turns up on the night.

That's what I said up there on the stage as well, because you've seen in some performances he has grit, he has bit down and got stuck in, and others he has shied away.

So he's shown them two sides of his character.

Again, I guess it's up to him, the team around him, whatever, to fill him with whatever confidence or influence or whatever he feels like he needs to get the best out of him.

But whether that manifests properly on the night or not is a different question entirely.

What do you make of his mindset going forward in this fight, the build-up to this fight?

I mean, what that was like the first time you stepped in the ring, and if it's real, for the white colour versus...

I remember the whole time my legs feeling like I just ran a marathon.

They just felt so heavy.

And I was like, I feel like I'm in mud.

I feel like I'm not going to be able to move because it's, I've always made the comparison that sometimes with white collar versus amateur boxing, the pressure is slightly different.

Because with amateur boxing, you could go box in the middle of Uzbekistan in front of no one that knows you, no one that remembers your name, no one cares.

If you lose in any fashion, no one particularly cares.

yeah that's always the um it's like the joker isn't it it's um that ace card that you have no matter how far how hard the fight is you've always got that you've always got that uh just a couple of quick ones before we finish one is obviously you uh as well as all the amazing things you've done in the ring uh you're a dad as well now um how does that change your life change perspective and things just being a dad

Um, I, I, I've never asked you yet, and I'm gonna ask you now, what's fight week like for Fabio Wardley? What are the last three days like, the Thursday, the Friday, the Saturday? And do you th- do you think, do you sense any difference in the way you've been previously in a fight week?

For me, my main, I guess, main mantra or main feeling about it is just keep it normal, and that's the way I've always been about it from the beginning, from when I first got into it, when it was first lights, cameras, action, and interviews, and this and the rest, and to where it is now, and I headline in pay-per-view shows and all the same.

It's just keep it casual, keep it calm, keep it fun.

Between me and the team, we're always having laughs, always having jokes.

Don't get too carry-- don't get too wrapped up in it.

Don't get, don't take it too seriously.

Don't...

... or is it just something that you just say, "If it happens, we'll deal with it when it happens."

Um, because I was quite open about it and, and, and honestly, uh, I, I do really appreciate you coming on with those feelings being so out there.

No, of course.

Look, you and many other people, and this is nothing I hold against anyone, everyone's allowed their opinion.

Um, everyone's seeing it back.

No one's there in real time.

No one's... no one is Joseph Parker on the end of those punches feeling those hits.

And I, I know everyone takes it as, yeah, okay, he was up in the fight and he...

How do you feel about those two, and in particular, the down six rounds? Did you feel like the, the margin was that wide?

Anyone, anytime, wants to come up against anyone, he's excited about the challenge, and you know you've got a guy who doesn't like to back away.

Yeah, look, he has a massive credit due to him for that as well, because look at his last few fights as well.

He's taken any challenge in front of him, just wants to stay active, stay busy and stay in that kind of that top ring of fighters.

And that's...

in a space becoming increasingly rare, to be honest, across fighters.

A lot of people want to sit and wait, especially with the position that he was in with the WBO as well.

Next in line for a shot and me with the WBA.

Have there been any lessons learned throughout your fighting career so far?

Anyone, anytime, wants to come up against anyone, he's excited about the challenge, and you know you've got a guy who doesn't like to back away.

Yeah, look, he has a massive credit due to him for that as well because, look, you can look at his last few fights as well.

He's taken any challenge in front of him, just wants to stay active, stay busy, and stay in that kind of top ring of fighters.

And that's...

in a space becoming increasingly rare, to be honest, for cross-fighters.

A lot of people want to sit and wait, especially with the position that he was in with the WBO as well.

Next in line for a shot and me with the WBA.

Have there been any lessons learned throughout your fighting career so far?

There were other names maybe sort of linked or interested, any others?

Yeah, p- probably only one real serious contender with conversations that we had back and forth 'cause again, because this, this fight is for the, the WBA interim, um, we have to take into consideration who's ranked, um, within that governing body and who's in a good position.

And then you have to take into account who's available, who's ready, who's fighting fit on relatively in a, in a broad term, short notice.

Um, obviously you'd like a, a longer time to prepare for a big fight like this.

So, there was a lot of factors having to take into place.

The only other person we really did have kind of serious conversations with, um, was Filip Hrgovic, um, but knowing he's not, not too long come off the Joyce fight as well, um, he sustained a few cuts in that one and he had done this fight before that as well, so we just kind of...

We'd already had one cancellation due to injury and things like that, I didn't wanna risk Hrgovic having to go through another camp and then maybe getting cut and sparring or, or that reopening or something like that again.

Do you recall how you felt, how you reacted when, when you had noticed that your knockout in the first round back in October had, had sort of like dislodged his jaw to the point where there was an indentation around here? Like, what, what are you thinking when you realize that your power created that?